PopHorror Let's Get Scared
I love a film with mystery and wonder. Tyler Savage’s disturbingly unique horror story, Inheritance (read our review here), delivers this and more. It also leaves you with several unanswered questions, making for a thought-provoking and intense film. PopHorror got the opportunity to sit down with Tyler and talk about how he got involved in the industry, how he came up with Inheritance, and more!
PopHorror: Thanks for talking with PopHorror, Tyler! How long have you known you wanted to work in the world of filmmaking?
Tyler Savage: Pretty much as long as I can remember. I’m an only child, so I grew up watching a ton of films, and I started experimenting and making little shorts when I was 6-7 years old.
PopHorror: Wow, that’s really young! How did you become a director?
Tyler Savage: It’s been a goal of mine for over twenty years, but I guess I became a director when I decided that I wanted to tell stories. Or, in a more professional sense, I became a director when I decided to doggedly pursue producing my own film by any means necessary.
PopHorror: Seems like you took the right path. What’s your film, Inheritance, about?
Tyler Savage: Inheritance is a psychological thriller about a guy who inherits a house under mysterious circumstances. As he begins to investigate his family history, he starts to unravel. It’s a genre take on themes that are near and dear to me.
PopHorror: Where’d you come up with the idea for Inheritance?
Tyler Savage: I wanted to address ideas of family and genetics, how we sometimes feel defined by our own bloodlines. I was at a family reunion in Dillon Beach a couple of years back, and I learned so much about my own family history, and that made me deeply curious about where I came from, so that may have been the initial inspiration.
PopHorror: That’s awesome! How did the casting process come about?
Tyler Savage: Actor Chase Joliet is a close friend, so he was cast before the script was even done. I also knew Alex Dobrenko, Ashley Spillers, and Drew Powell personally, so much of the cast came together organically through these relationships.
PopHorror: No wonder the chemistry was so perfect. What was your main goal for this film?
Tyler Savage: To find a balance between my more avant-garde visual instincts and traditional genre expectations. To do something fresh in a genre that I love.
PopHorror: What was the most difficult scene to shoot?
Tyler Savage: The dinner scene is a 7-minute single take, so that was easily the toughest to pull off. And it’s nerve-wracking as a director when you’re choosing not to get coverage of a scene.
PopHorror: Oh, wow! I can only imagine! But, I have to say that you managed to pull it off well. The film leaves the viewer with a lot of unanswered questions. Was that your intent?
Tyler Savage: Yes. I wanted to leave a certain level of ambiguity so that people could bring themselves to the story. I have firm answers to every question posed in the film, but I’ve always enjoyed stories that allow me to read into the meaning, to bring myself to it.
PopHorror: It definitely did that! So far, what has been the initial reaction from fans about this film?
Tyler Savage: It’s been a mixed bag honestly, but I fully understood that I was making a divisive film. Some fans absolutely get Inheritance and appreciate it, but others have found the intentionally non-traditional approach to horror frustrating.
PopHorror: Do you have any other upcoming projects you’d like to talk about?
Tyler Savage: I’m working on another psychological thriller that I hope to start shooting soon. Another west coast story, this one is going to be set in the pacific northwest.
A big thanks to Tyler Savage for speaking to us about Inheritance and its ambiguous ending. Stay tuned to PopHorror for all of your pop culture and horror news!
